Hello, I'm opening a new thread as the other one is too focussed on Marine Le Pen, who according to polls is not the most likely winner.

There are 11 official candidates, 4 of them are polling around the 20% mark, the 7 others take the rest. 4 candidates so close together 1 week before the election, this has never happened since this system exists (1965). Charles de Gaulle who invented the system wasn't a visionary though, he thought he would be elected triumphally in the first round in 1965 and instead a young François Mitterrand happened and a runoff was necessary.

Official posters of the candidates :

They've been sorted from far left to far right :

Arthaud and Poutou are trotskyists, Cheminade is against finance and wants to colonize Mars, Mélenchon is old school socialist/communist/green, Hamon is the candidate of the Socialist Party and the Greens, Macron is a social-democrat without a party, calling himself both left-wing and right-wing, Lassalle is a centrist that must have drunk too much as you can't understand what he's saying, Fillon is the candidate of the right wing Les Republicains, Dupont-Aignan is a right-wing nationalist, Asselineau is a conspirationist who wants Frexit, and Le Pen is an anti-Islam nationalist.

The four who have a chance to make it to the runoff :

A few weeks ago Macron and Le Pen were at 25-26% each so they lost ground. Fillon was at 17% so he's coming back a bit, and Mélenchon has surged dramatically, helped by the inflight disintegration of Benoît Hamon.

A runoff between Le Pen and Mélenchon, thought unimaginable, is now a real possibility. Both are against the EU and want to control the French currency to devalue it, implement protectionist policies, both are closer to Putin than to the US, etc. Now that such a runoff is a real possibility polls have been conducted and Mélenchon is given as the winner.

Here are the various runoff scenarios :

Interesting times !

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François Fillon is suggesting that he could put people from "sens commun" in his government. Sens commun are Catholic fanatics that opposed the marriage for all law, are against abortion, etc. Very "far right" of him, his strategy is clearly to take votes from Marine Le Pen. Marine Le Pen who meanwhile was very quiet during the marriage for all debate and has removed her anti-abortion stance from her platform.

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I think theses polls underestimate Le pen and overestimate Melenchon. The worst that could happen is a second run with just Le pen and melenchon, meaning the french society is so polarized that the 2 extremists are the only choice allowed. I wonder how many people will just stay home in that case.

Terror police in France have arrested two men, aged 23 and 29, in Marseille.Clement Baur and Mahiedine Merabet, who were known to police as extremists.Officers seized guns and explosives, and found a video in which the two men pledge allegiance to ISIS, local media reports

They were threatening at least one candidate (François Fillon), maybe others.

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I actually believe the EU works for smaller countries, if Norway finally joined I'd be all for it, but the current situation where Norway is practically a member but without a seat at the table doesn't work for anyone. I don't think the EU works for France, especially now the UK left. France will be dominated by the Germans. With three large economies they balanced each other.

How can people vote for this Rothschild's nominee Macron?Will anything, any little thing change in France with Macron?No. Nothing will change. Or change for worse.Le Pen! Le Pen! Le Pen!

People promising big changes in France achieve very little. French people don't want big change, and they have the guts to show it in the streets.

Macron is his own man and promises significant changes, for example to streamline the public retirement system, and to change the unemployment insurance's nature. The first one especially, most politicians agree it's needed, and have promised it for decades, but only when in opposition. He has the courage to put it in his platform.

New Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work yet. Douglas Adams

French people don't want big change, and they have the guts to show it in the streets.

I think French people are pretty dumb if they they are content with the status quo where terrorist attacks are becoming increasingly common and youth unemployment is through the roof.

But of course in democracy all people get the government they deserve. At least Macron will make sure European media will have plenty of selling headlines about terrorist attacks in France in the future too.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." - Martin Luther King Jr

Champagne drunk, I am glad. Very happy that Fillon the fraudster has been defeated. Next fraudster out in two weeks.

I'm not naive, I don't expect Macron to be perfect or do everything right, nobody can, but he is by far the closest candidate to my ideas, and his election alone will cause the eviction of many old politicos we're tired of seeing, "draining the swamp" for real.

New Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work yet. Douglas Adams

Champagne drunk, I am glad. Very happy that Fillon the fraudster has been defeated. Next fraudster out in two weeks.

I'm not naive, I don't expect Macron to be perfect or do everything right, nobody can, but he is by far the closest candidate to my ideas, and his election alone will cause the eviction of many old politicos we're tired of seeing, "draining the swamp" for real.

Congratulations! I'm quite sure Macron is the ideal one to be president of all the French people. I hope similar profiles will pop up in other nations too. Call it a clean-sheet design without political colour. It is quite unique.

I was flattered that someone took time to go through my irregular postings here and accused me of inconsistency.Thank you.However, many Trump's supporters can not understand his foreign policies.Some explain this turn by Jewish circle of Trump. Probably.Others believe that Trump should have prioritized domestic agenda over foreign policy. It is another possible explanation.We should remember that the Trump's base either doesn't care of foreign policies or their vision is limited by spectacular "muscles flexing."

Our basic (friendly) confrontation here at A-net perfectly presents two main global developments: globalism and multiculturalism vs. healthy nationalism and die Realpolitik.I heard Aesma and his interpretation of French domestic views and attitudes. Those are easy to understand because a basic pattern repeats over and over again in all countries.But what I am sure: Macron's victory (a banker in the socialist France!) means losing five years. It's just waste of time.Because Macron is not able to bring any fresh breath to French domestic or foreign policies. He is not supposed to. If the nationalism/Realpolitik is the dominating trend, it just means that Le Pen will win in five years.I simply hope that France - and Europe in general - has this time.

I was flattered that someone took time to go through my irregular postings here and accused me of inconsistency.Thank you.However, many Trump's supporters can not understand his foreign policies.Some explain this turn by Jewish circle of Trump. Probably.Others believe that Trump should have prioritized domestic agenda over foreign policy. It is another possible explanation.We should remember that the Trump's base either doesn't care of foreign policies or their vision is limited by spectacular "muscles flexing."

Our basic (friendly) confrontation here at A-net perfectly presents two main global developments: globalism and multiculturalism vs. healthy nationalism and die Realpolitik.I heard Aesma and his interpretation of French domestic views and attitudes. Those are easy to understand because a basic pattern repeats over and over again in all countries.But what I am sure: Macron's victory (a banker in the socialist France!) means losing five years. It's just waste of time.Because Macron is not able to bring any fresh breath to French domestic or foreign policies. He is not supposed to. If the nationalism/Realpolitik is the dominating trend, it just means that Le Pen will win in five years.I simply hope that France - and Europe in general - has this time.

Le Pen will be another Trump. People will be quite disappointed within days or weeks. Le Pens agenda will not work for what she promises and she has two seats in the French parliament. If Le Pen wins than five years will be wasted. Macron might be able to really change something for the better in France and perhaps in Europe.

Le Pen will be another Trump. People will be quite disappointed within days or weeks. Le Pens agenda will not work for what she promises and she has two seats in the French parliament. If Le Pen wins than five years will be wasted. Macron might be able to really change something for the better in France and perhaps in Europe.

I agree that Le Pen would be a disaster. People like her, Wilders, Trump, Putin, Erdogan, they thrive on conflict. And they'll make sure there is conflict, also after they get in charge. Plus they get cheered on for that conflict by a certain percentage of the population. Fortunately, in most nations the more moderate leaders win. But I fear the power of their hostile rhetorics. Looking at history, we know what this kind of leaders bring us. Yet it happened so often before and my biggest fear is that it'll have to happen again before tides will turn and people will realise that we're all on 1 planet and better learn to get along.

This is going to get very ugly in the next 2 weeks in France. I wonder if US President Trump has tweeted his congratulations to Ms. LePen. The French Election and well as the Netherlands earlier this year, the US's last year and what may happen in Germany in a few months, as well as those recently held are showing a huge right wing trend against immigration and work migration, too high rates of unemployment of many industrial workers, many middle and upper class persons wanting much lower taxes by cutting benefits to the poor, as well as backlash to GLTBQ rights, 'Gay Marriage' and hatred of anything connected with Islam due to terrorists acts connected with too many of that faith. They also show that we don't have any real leaders anymore. We need more Churchills and Roosevelts, not corporate lackeys or radical right wingers. Note that 48% of voters didn't chose either Macron or LePen. It is like what happened with the Republicans in the USA last year, they had so many looking for the nomination (17) each and all of them bad in their own way so ended up with the richest, biggest mouth and manipulator of people in Trump Even if Macron wins he will be in a weak position as he has plenty of connections to the financial and banking interests that will likely support over the majority of people.

Le Pen will be another Trump. People will be quite disappointed within days or weeks. Le Pens agenda will not work for what she promises and she has two seats in the French parliament. If Le Pen wins than five years will be wasted. Macron might be able to really change something for the better in France and perhaps in Europe.

I agree that Le Pen would be a disaster. People like her, Wilders, Trump, Putin, Erdogan, they thrive on conflict. And they'll make sure there is conflict, also after they get in charge. Plus they get cheered on for that conflict by a certain percentage of the population. Fortunately, in most nations the more moderate leaders win. But I fear the power of their hostile rhetorics. Looking at history, we know what this kind of leaders bring us. Yet it happened so often before and my biggest fear is that it'll have to happen again before tides will turn and people will realise that we're all on 1 planet and better learn to get along.

Unfortunately people don't live long enough to see the pattern. Even if people look at history books they think this time it'll be done right and avoid making the same mistakes.

Ironic really, long cast (by herself) as the 'insurgent' candidate, Vichy LePen (only this this for Putin not Germany), ends up facing someone who despite a short stint in government (bailing when he saw how useless Hollande was), can stake a greater claim to being the 'outsider'. He formed his party, LePen inherited it from her Holocaust denying, war criminal in Algeria father, giving it a spring clean to at least appear semi respectable.

Le Pen will be another Trump. People will be quite disappointed within days or weeks. Le Pens agenda will not work for what she promises and she has two seats in the French parliament. If Le Pen wins than five years will be wasted. Macron might be able to really change something for the better in France and perhaps in Europe.

I agree that Le Pen would be a disaster. People like her, Wilders, Trump, Putin, Erdogan, they thrive on conflict. And they'll make sure there is conflict, also after they get in charge. Plus they get cheered on for that conflict by a certain percentage of the population. Fortunately, in most nations the more moderate leaders win. But I fear the power of their hostile rhetorics. Looking at history, we know what this kind of leaders bring us. Yet it happened so often before and my biggest fear is that it'll have to happen again before tides will turn and people will realise that we're all on 1 planet and better learn to get along.

Unfortunately people don't live long enough to see the pattern. Even if people look at history books they think this time it'll be done right and avoid making the same mistakes.

Yes and the "elite" in society seems to follow the same pattern, over and over again. Taking to big a slice and thereby upsetting the balance and so the citizens' revolt. Nowadays we do it with elections in the west. So something needs to change in Europe at least.

Among the 11 candidates none proposed reasonable solutions to the revenues inequality problem. France is already one of the better countries on this so that didn't help. Candidates to the left of Macron proposed solutions that would crash the economy, so less revenue for everyone. Fillon didn't care. His electorate is disproportionately made up of retirees and he pandered shamelessly to them. The candidates to the right of him want to get out of the EU, so again a crash of the economy. A couple of very small candidates proposed to break up the banks and tame finance, along with nationalization of many companies (that are already partly public, in France), something that might work in the long run but would first create a big mess.

Macron being a social-democrat I think he's the best equipped to do this, even though it's not really something he talks about, at least it seems to me he's an humanist so that should help. And he's not obsessed with money or he would have stayed a banker (and better invested the millions he made).

New Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work yet. Douglas Adams

I'm so scared now.People are becoming insane in several countries, and vote for clowns, idiots and dangerous extremists, and they also vote for division and isolationism (which they regret very soon after). Latest examples are US, UK, Turkey.

If the economical situation doesn't improve very soon, we'll end up with the same disaster in France.If this stupid, racist, full of hatred, arrogant and aggressive "woman" is elected, I really don't know what I will do ... It will be a hell.